Reflections, Observations, and Analyses Pertaining to the Canadian Political Scene

Monday, August 6, 2012

Another Unpleasant Fact of Omnibus Bill C-38 Revealed

Given that it is a government with a well-known contempt for openness and democracy, the Harper regime rarely shocks me anymore. Its vilification campaigns of those with opposing views, its use of government power to muzzle the voice of science, its almost demonic obsession with resource extraction at any cost has left me pretty much inured to any emotional reaction other than disgust.

Yet even I was both shocked and appalled at what I learned reading The Toronto Star's editorial this morning.

The headline tells it all: Drilling for oil in the Gulf of St. Lawrence without a clue:

Buried within the more than 400 pages of this spring’s federal omnibus budget bill is an invitation for resource companies to open a new frontier in Canadian oil: the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The gulf, which touches the coastlines of Canada’s five easternmost provinces, is the world’s largest estuary. It’s home to more than 2,000 species of marine wildlife — an ecosystem integral to the health of our Atlantic and Great Lakes fisheries.

Now, due to measures deep in the federal budget, that ecosystem may be under threat. The bill explicitly highlights the region’s potential for petroleum extraction and includes amendments to the Coasting Trade Act that give oil companies greater access to exploration vessels.

The editorial reveals that a company called Corridor Resources Inc. has applied to drill the first-ever deep-water well in the gulf, a development with dire environmental implications. Even without an oil spill, the seismic drilling will have profoundly negative effects on marine life, and to compound the environmental crime, there will be no way to measure those effects:

The budget rescinded the requirement for environmental assessments of exploratory drilling and crippled the Centre for Offshore Oil, Gas and Energy Research, the federal agency best equipped to deliver such assessments.

In a world already in the midst of the biggest disaster ever experienced by humanity, climate change, the Harper regime is unbowed in its headlong rush to give the corporate sector every opportunity to 'live for the moment," something it has historically proven to be very adept at.

2 comments:

It should be crystal clear that Canada has a runaway and almost certainly illegally elected government, omnipotently determined to do or legislate whatever its pompous evangelical leader, its spineless cabinet, faux Senate or self serving corporate donors, or advocates want to do.

This has absolutely nothing to do with Canadian ethics - morality or beliefs.. nor sound government, creating jobs - prosperity, economics or what the majority of Canadian citizens and the Canadian electorate want. Nor are elected Harper Cartel - Government MP's within their respective ridings representing - respecting, enacting or protecting their electorates needs or wishes.

We have a deranged ex Bay street stock broker far past his best before date, promoting the destruction of our environment to enhance and ensure the extraction and export of our natural resources. Somehow Joe Oliver has been given the 'Uber Minister' role to stand far above the Environment and Oceans and Fisheries Ministries.. whose dull pathetic ministers, Kent and Ashfield echo (faintly - as they really have zero power or backbone) the strident and un-Canadian views of the Man from Leaside, Ontario .. Stephen 'westerner' Harper ..

Expect nothing.. but disaster, deficit, dishonor, dishonesty, foreign war adventurism, evasion, subversion, shallow evangelism-opinion, intimidation and outright lies and democratic obstruction from this bizarre crew that sees profit, power and control in emulating American Republican nonsense and Electoral 'Grooming' and Vote Suppression - Manipulation and Electoral Fraud.

Its all worked for them so far.. don't except them to give it all up without an incredibly dirty and nasty, even military struggle.. Better to understand they will need to be led from parliament or the Supreme Court in orange jumpsuits and handcuffs..

The boreal forest, the BC coastline, the St. Lawrence Estuary ? Salmon, beluga, orca, wolves, lake trout, the cod... ? These are seen by these criminals as 'obstacles' to be overcome, stripped or sold.. not priceless Canadian resources..